Californians who enjoy cannabis have a lot to applaud this new year. Recreational sales turn authorised Jan 1st, and the $5 billion attention and could yield the state with $1 billion in revenu, so both the business zone and state supervision mount to distinction handsomely. But it could be an generally critical day for the hundreds of thousands of people in California with a drug crime on their record, who may be getting a second possibility at a purify slate.

Beginning in 2018, the state will offer anyone convicted of a pot crime the event to have the charge forsaken or reduced by Prop 64. For decades, even teenager charges like pot possession have held back many from employment. The state sees the event to have their annals expunged as a fresh start, and it could impact up to a million people, according to the Drug Policy Alliance. The classification estimates that there have been 500,000 arrests for pot offenses in California over the past 10 years.

The policy could generally advantage Californians of tone who have been targeted for drug arrests. The Drug Policy Alliance writes that “in 2015, black people were some-more than twice as likely as white people to be arrested for a pot misconduct and scarcely 5 times some-more likely than white people to be arrested for a pot felony.” As for the Hispanic population, “Latino people are arrested for pot offenses 35 percent some-more mostly than white people in California.”

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The expungement order is a common clarity magnitude that shows the state is in step with the times. Possessing an unit or reduction of pot is authorised now in California, so it’s only wise that those who have a rapist record for identical amounts have this charge erased. With California as the latest state to order such a rule, there are now 9 states that offer expungement to those convicted of pot crimes. It’s partial of a flourishing recognition of the pomposity of these convictions, at a time when legalization is flourishing in recognition nationwide. In the past 5 years, sixteen states have mutated their pot laws to revoke penalties for possession.

Advocates for rapist probity remodel have been generally outspoken about seing California adopt this new rule. The Post describes a few such champions:

Last year, prosecutors in San Diego searched for people convicted of pot offenses in the before 3 years who would be authorised for reductions. When the magnitude passed, prosecutors got their petitions before a judge as shortly as possible.

“We positively didn’t wish people to be in control who shouldn’t be in custody,” pronounced Rachel Solov, arch of the collaborative courts multiplication in the San Diego district attorney’s office. She pronounced that as of mid-December, the bureau has rubbed scarcely 600 reductions.

Of course, those best staid to advantage from Prop 64 are those with the time, money, and entrance to take their cases back to court. “What we see is the people who have some-more means are the ones who are holding advantage of this, and the people who have some-more simple struggles in their bland life, the last thing they’re meditative about is cleaning up their rapist story for their old pot convictions,” one invulnerability profession told the Post. Still, swell is progress.

Liz Posner is a handling editor at AlterNet. Her work has seemed on Forbes.com, Bust, Bustle, Refinery29, and elsewhere. Follow her on Twitter at @elizpos.